NWF State women earn 14 seed in national tourney

Monday

NICEVILLE — The NWF State women's basketball team is headed back to Lubbock, Texas.

Forget missing the Region 8 tournament. Forget the four-game losing streak to end the season.

NWF State's regular-season résumé was strong enough to earn the Raiders the No. 14 at-large seed and a first-round date on March 20 with 19th-seeded Panola at 10 a.m. (CT).

"We're happy to be playing again," said NWF State head coach Bart Walker, who in the offseason inherited a program that finished 1-11 in the Panhandle. "Obviously we were hoping ... and I thought we'd be somewhere between a 11-15 seed just because we didn't get to participate in the state tournament and unranked teams that win their region typically jump ranked teams that don't."

The Raiders finished the season 22-6 and ranked eighth in the country. That included a 7-6 mark in the country's toughest league, the Panhandle Conference, which boasts Region 8 champion Gulf Coast State as a No. 2 seed and Tallahassee as an 11 seed.

All three Panhandle teams are on the same side of the bracket. NWF State and Tallahassee could potentially meet in the Elite Eight, while the winner of that would be in line to face the two-time defending national champion Commodores if they advance to the Final Four.

Walker and his staff were in the office of NWF State Athletic Director Ramsey Ross when the reveal was aired on Selection Monday's live broadcast. NWF State was one of eight at-large entrees, joining 16 regional champs in the 24-team field.

"Everyone was ecstatic," said Walker, who noted most of his players were in class outside of point guard Ann Jernigan.

Within an hour travel plans were shored up for the Raiders, who will leave Friday night for an early Saturday flight from New Orleans to Lubbock.

The Raiders will have to shake off the rust of a four-game losing streak, which culminated with a 57-53 loss to Tallahassee on the neutral court of Chipola. After a 7-2 start to the Panhandle, the Raiders needed to win just one of their final four games to shore up runner-up honors to Gulf Coast State. They were unable to do so, leaving them in third place, out of the Region 8 tournament field and dormant from game-time competition since Feb. 27.

"After that loss to Tallahassee I gave the players four days off because of injuries," Walker said. "I just wanted them to get some rest and get refocused in anticipation for an at-large bid. They were back to practice on Monday and we had a pretty good practice last week. We worked on fundamentals and some up-and-down-the-court competition and just got our legs back under us."

Now Panola (25-6), another at-large bid which lost to San Jacinto College-North in the semifinals of the Region 14 tournament, awaits the Raiders on March 20.

"They come from the East Texas League and their coach, Eddie Kite, is good friend of mine," Walker said. "Over the years we've shared info and I'm sure they'll be athletic just like our league."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.